Warning: This article contains graphic images and discussion of domestic violence which some readers may find distressing.
Emily Lewis was unable to recall what had happened to her in the hours before she awoke in a hospital bed last February with a series of mysterious facial injuries.
The Welsh 24-year-old suffered a fractured cheekbone, an 8cm-long head injury which penetrated so deep it reached her skull, and bruising all over her cheek and body, having seemingly been near-strangled.
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It was only in the hours that followed - after she received her 19 stitches - that one of the nurses tending to her at Port Talbot hospital broke the life-shattering news of who had attacked her.
"Your boyfriend did it," Emily was told.
"I thought he had a drinking problem"
Emily had been in a relationship with partner Thomas Jones for the last three years, now recalling that though their relationship 'wasn't perfect', she never believed he had it within him to inflict physical harm onto her.
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Speaking to Wales Online, she adds, however, that her other-half often became violent when under the influence of drugs and alcohol, as he had been the night of her near-murder.
"During our relationship he was never massively aggressive to me," she explains. "In the year leading up to it I thought he had a drinking problem because he would go out all the time and come home late and then have a go at me.
"There were traits of negative behaviour towards me but nothing like this. I wouldn’t have described it as a toxic relationship.”
Emily - who admits she's been left both emotionally and physically scarred for life - was later forced to testify against her ex's behaviour in Swansea Crown Court.
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The night of the attack
Recalling the fateful night on 18 February 2023 when she was rushed to A&E with severe bleeding, she said she and Jones had been enjoying a night out with friends on Wind Street in the South Wales city.
Emily recalls the evening getting off to a great start with the wider group singing and dancing together, which was only interrupted when Jones became unhappy at the prospect of moving to a second venue.
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"I believe he got kicked out of that venue," she says. "I was outside with him trying to calm him down and it started from there.
"He was calling me names, calling me a c**t, telling me to f**k off, and telling me to go away while I was trying to defuse the situation.
"We went into another place and he got kicked out of there."
According to Emily, the next couple of hours dissolved into a blur, though she recalls heading back to her home with Thomas, where the couple had an argument on the doorstep after he was unable to find the front door key.
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In the row, Ring doorbell footage recorded Thomas attempting to blame his girlfriend for the confusion.
"I don’t remember much from when we got home because of the head injury I later sustained," she admits.
"I remember something briefly being said about house keys because he couldn't find them and he was saying I had them when I remember he had them."
It wasn't until the couple entered the property, however, that Thomas truly unleashed his fury.
"I told him to kill me because I couldn't stand it anymore"
"Next I remember being inside the house and I remember him strangling me to the point where I couldn’t breathe," she explains.
"I could feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness. I was trying to kick him off me but I’m small compared to him so I wasn’t able to."
Amid the subsequent blurriness, Emily insists that the clearest memory she has is the 'excruciating pain' when her partner began kicking her.
“While I was on the floor he was [punching] me repeatedly to the point where I was in so much pain I told him to kill me because I couldn’t stand it any more."
Luckily, amid her lack of consciousness, Emily was able to call her mother during the attack, who turned up to the scene to see Thomas punching her daughter in the face.
After managing to tear her away from him, she dragged Emily to Morriston Hospital in Swansea, alerting the police while on the journey.
Emily says: "They took me straight into resus and I don’t remember much more of that night. I remember waking up at around 9am the next morning and I didn't know what was going on.
"I was in a hospital gown and my phone was dead. I was pumped full of painkillers like morphine but I could still feel the pain."
"I can't walk in a straight line"
It wasn't until much later that Emily was able to see her injuries.
"I was shocked and traumatised when I found out he did this. My life completely changed in one night. The day before we were fine and now I haven’t spoken to him since," she recalls.
Thomas Jones has now been sent to prison for 18 months for inflicting grievous bodily harm and battery, while Emily is still being consistently assessed due to the possibility of a long-term brain injury.
"I have an appointment with brain injury aftercare because I repeat myself constantly, my balance is off, and I have started having migraines. My balance is particularly bad – I can’t walk in a straight line."
If you are experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone. You can talk in confidence to the national domestic violence helpline Refuge on 0808 2000 247, available 24/7, or via live chat, available 3pm-10pm, Monday to Friday.
Rhianna Benson